Busy day so it's a late post but now that I'm free I am ready to post! Enjoy! :)
The back of the truck door slammed shut as all the groceries were loaded in. Stan placed his hands on his lower back and groaned as his spine cracked from stretching it out.
"Well, that was a nightmare," he said as he flipped through his now empty wallet.
Mabel was grinning as she opened the door to the backseat. "Aw, c'mon, Grunkle Stan, isn't it worth it to see Dipper all better?"
"No," Grunkle Stan grunted as he slid into the passenger seat.
"That's the spirit!" Mabel crowed, clambering into the back.
Soos got in with a bucktoothed smile. "Alright, dawgs, let's go home and save a life!"
"Yeah!" Mabel cheered as Stan rolled his eyes.
Soos inserted the key in and turned. The car sputtered and refused to start up. Frowning, Soos tried again but the old musty truck only sputtered once more.
"Huh," Soos said.
Stan glared at him. "Soos, please tell me that you know exactly what you're doing and this car will start up within the next five minutes."
"Uhhh, sure thing, Mister Pines! Soos the handyman always knows how to fix things… mostly!"
Soos got out of the car to check the hood and Stan groaned as he rubbed his eyes beneath his glasses. Mabel leaned forward apprehensively.
"Grunkle Stan, I'm really worried about Dipper. You think he's ok?" Her voice shrank with fear.
Stan shifted his gaze to her and it softened at the sight of her. "Sweetie, he'll be ok, trust me. I'm gunna do everything I can to make sure that he gets his medicine by today."
She smiled at him, completely putting all her trust in her great uncle. Stan smiled back just as Soos opened his door. He was wiping his oily hands on his trousers with a fretful expression.
"So, uh, the battery is dead in the engine," he said.
Stan's brow rose. "So, what, does it need a new set of double A's or…?"
Before Soos could reply, the sound of a siren cut in and a police car pulled up next to them. As soon as Stan saw who had pulled them over—though he was already expecting it since there didn't seem to be any other police officers in town— he moaned in aggravation.
"Oi. These two."
Sherriff Blubs and Deputy Durland stepped out with suspicious eyes. Blubs hoisted up his pants and waddled to the truck, his sunglasses flashing in the light of day. He leaned against Stan's side of the car and pointed a finger at him through the rolled down window.
"Well, well, if it isn't Stanford Pines. Just what kind of ruckus are you causing now, old man?"
"Woo! We got 'im now!" The taller one of the two chimed in with a wide grin, backing his partner up to which Blubs smiled at that.
"What? Nothing!" Stan argued, "We were just trying to get home when dingus over here forgot to switch out the car batteries." He thumbed towards Soos who looked more confused than ever.
"Uh, Mister Pines, that's not—"
"So back off!" Stan barked at the officers. "I haven't done anything yet!"
"Hogtie?" Durland suggested to Blubs excitedly and held up some rope with a stupid grin.
Blubs sighed. He hated to break his partner's heart like this. "As much as I want to deny it, he's right. He technically HASN'T done anything yet."
"Aw," Durland whined, downtrodden as he lowered the rope.
Blubs lay a comforting hand on his shoulder. "I promise you that we'll get to do that to someone one of these days. I don't care how long it takes as long as it's with you."
Durland smiled down at him, eyes shining with unbridled emotions.
Mabel cooed at the sight, her hands going to her heart. Stan cleared his throat loudly, interrupting their tender moment.
"Yeah, so, you mind helping us with this battery situation? I got a sick kid at home who needs this medicine for him to be able to survive by tomorrow."
"Grunkle Stan!" Mabel cried out fearfully, clearly believing this to be true.
Stan leaned back to whisper at her gruffly, "Play along with me, kid."
Mabel seemed to perk up at that as she looked at the awaiting officers. "Oh, uh, yeah! My brother's going to die unless we get him his medication and if you don't help us it'll be all your fault! Do you REALLY want that on your conscious?! Huh?! Do you!?" Mabel shook a fist at them.
Stan brought her fist down and said in a grunt underneath his breath, "Tone it back a bit."
"I mean, uh, it's an epidemic! If we don't cure Dipper, then it'll be a mass breakout! Hide the women and children!" Mabel voiced dramatically.
Stan face palmed with a groan. He loved her gumption but she was a terrible liar, something that they did not share in the slightest. Fortunately, Soos managed to somehow save it.
"Yeah, dudes! If you like save his life and stuff, you'll be known as heroes! Maybe the mayor will even give you guys like medals or something."
This miraculously seemed to do the trick on the gullible cops as they turned to one another with stars in their eyes.
"You don't think he means…" Blubs began.
"The "Good Job" medal," they said in awe before breaking out into gleeful giggles.
"The what?" Stan stated incredulously.
"The "Good Job" medal," Blubs repeated, "It's the highest medal of honor to be given to a small town cop. Only a few have ever been given one by the mayor of Gravity Falls, and Durland and I are dedicated to achieving it."
"It's part of our bucket list!"
"Yeah, great." Stan rolled his eyes. "So does this mean you'll—"
"We got us a city boy to save!" Durland cheered, running back to the cop car.
Blubs shook his head with a laugh. "That's my Durland, always on top of things." He turned back to the crew in the truck. "Before we get a move on, we gotta make sure that this rescue mission is officially approved by the mayor himself so we're gunna need to make a few phone calls first."
Everyone in the truck let out a long groan of frustration, particularly Stan who knew that the oldest mayor in the world would have trouble comprehending anything that was asked of him.
"OH HO HOOOOO YOU'VE GOTTA BE FREAKING KIDDING ME!" He bellowed up into the roof of the truck in anger at the sheer stupidity of it all.
"You've gotta be freaking kidding me," Wendy muttered at Dipper's slumped form against the outer part of the tub.
When she had carried him to the bathroom, he was semi awake and had nodded into taking a bath, thought she was sure he hadn't meant to do anything of the sort and was just distractedly lolling his head around in a sort of drugged stupor. Still, she took that as a sign to proceed and tried to set him down on his feet once in the bathroom. His legs gave out underneath him and she narrowly caught him before his head hit the side of the tub. She then allowed him to lay up against the tub instead and then realized that he was once more passed out.
Wendy let out a huff, red hair flying out of her face in the process. She sighed and kneeled in front of him. Doing her best to try thinking of him as her own brother, she took off his red shirt and his socks. This left him in his pajama shorts, which she decided to let him keep on. He was her friend and she would respect his boundaries. She didn't want the guy to be utterly humiliated knowing she saw him naked.
She breathed deeply, preparing herself as she lifted him by his arms and lowered him into the tub. The bubbles caressed against him gently. He settled in and she let go with a smile. Her smile completely did a one-eighty when Dipper's body continued to slide down as his head went to submerge. The temperature of the water must have turned his bones into jelly. She brought him back up just in time and cursed under her breath. Ok, she was going to have to wake him up.
She lightly shook the boy and called his name. Dipper didn't even twitch. Growling, she tapped his face with her hand and threw in a few harder slaps. "DIPPER!" Dipper jolted awake with wide bloodshot eyes. He screamed in surprise.
"What's-what's going on?! W-what happened?! Where am I?!" His head swiveled left and right and Wendy kept him still with a hand on his arm. He didn't seem to pay too much attention to her, she realized and kept her voice low.
"Hey, bud, sorry, but I had to wake you up," she said soothingly, "You wanna stay sitting up for me for a little bit while you take a bath?" She stroked his locks to keep him calm.
Her voice and movements were doing the trick as Dipper instantly eased up and his lids drooped tiredly. His unfocused eyes sought hers and he nodded. Man, this guy was TOTALLY out of it, she mused. It was better than nothing. She smiled at him and grabbed a washcloth. She lathered it with soap and began to wash him.
"Mph, i-is Mabel gunna mrphrmun…" Dipper slurred out sleepily, head rolling forward before jerking it up once it began to gravitate him forward. The process repeated like this for a few moments.
Wendy chuckled. She just couldn't resist. Taking out her phone, she quickly snapped a photo of them and tucked it back into her pocket. "Mabel will be here soon, don't you worry about that, dude."
Dipper just continued to murmur to himself as Wendy finished soaping up his upper body before taking a cup from underneath the sink and filling it with warm water. She poured it on top of his head slowly, rinsing his hair with the other hand. Dipper remained silent, managing to stay upright for her. She was impressed by this feat and hurriedly finished up so he could go back to sleep. She grabbed a dry fluffy towel off the rack.
"Alright, Dip, c'mon, let's go."
Dipper gave no protest when Wendy lifted him out. She had him sit on the toilet as she dried him off. He simply stared ahead with sleep deprived eyes, barely registering what was happening to him. She took a look at him and internally smiled at the sight of him looking much better than he did before. His skin wasn't as pale and his eyes not as dark. She was glad the bath wasn't a complete waste of time and did manage to help his sickness a bit.
While she ran the towel over his hair, she noticed that his shorts were still very wet and she bit her lip. Shoot. How could she possibly think that he can sleep in wet pajamas? She ran her fingers through her hair as she thought. She pursed her lips. She supposed it was time to test the theory if Dipper was in his right mind to do something by himself.
She told him to wait there for her and that she would be right back. She quickly left the room and entered the twin's room to try and find another pair of dry pajamas. His drawers were empty. However, there was a large unwashed pile of clothes near his bed and figured that a dirty dry pair was better than nothing. When she returned to the restroom, she saw that Dipper had moved to sit on the floor and was leaning against the cabinet sink. She sighed in relief when she saw that he wasn't asleep, but he was clearly struggling to stay awake.
Wendy walked over and gently grabbed his hands and asked him to stand up for her. She pulled and he easily followed, swaying slightly on his feet. His eyes blinked slowly as she lifted his arms to put on a dry shirt. Once it was secure, she held up the shorts for him.
"Think you can change out of your wet shorts and put on these new ones, bud?"
She was delighted to see him nod and grab the shorts from her lazily. Then, to her surprise, he began to pull off his shorts. Flushing, she quickly spun around so as to avoid seeing anything and patiently waited. There was the sound of wet fabric hitting the floor and a slight shuffle. The shuffling stopped and she took a peek behind her to see that he had successfully pulled on the shorts but desperately looked like he needed to lay down.
"Alright, you sleepy dork, let's get you to bed." She gave him another piggy back ride back to bed and made sure he was tucked in. Dipper curled into the blankets.
"Mmph, thanks…Mabel…" Dipper mumbled thickly.
Wendy smiled softly at him and ruffled his hair affectionately. She sat on his bed against the wall beside him and decided to wait until he was asleep before going back downstairs. Minutes passed and watching Dipper fall asleep was strangely making her sleepy. She fought a yawn and her mind tried to tell her to get up and leave, but the bed was pretty comfortable, and she was just so tired from the emotional roller coaster she went through that day.
Her eyes slipped close and before she knew it she had fallen asleep beside him.
*wheezing and out of breath* Blubs: There...is no...escape! I gotta take a knee.
Durland: Are you ok? Can I get you anything?
Blubs: Edwin, darlin', you are a diamond in the rough.
BONUS!
Quentin Trembley: And then he chased me around and spanked me with a paddle for, like, three hours. Bottom line, George Washington was a JERK.